


The Start

by Avidfangirlforlife



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 03:24:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15855249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avidfangirlforlife/pseuds/Avidfangirlforlife
Summary: A high school AU in which teenage mother Emma Swan and Regina Mills, the most popular girl in school, find themselves drawn together.





	The Start

With her head hung and shoulders hunched, Emma Swan trudged down the corridor of Storybrooke High. Desperately, she tried her absolute hardest not to make eye contact with anyone. She really couldn’t deal with anyone starting shit with her today, because she really was just too tired.

She supposed, when she actually let herself think about it, that she should probably be excited. After all, it was the first day of her senior year. Which made today a pretty special day in the eyes of pretty much all of her peers. However, she found that she just couldn’t muster the energy to even pretend to be excited.

It had been a long night for her, in the Blanchard- Swan residence. Henry had been ill and had needed to be nursed until four am. And so she had spent most of the night wide awake.

At almost eighteen months old, her beautiful baby boy was teething. Usually, he was a complete angel, so she really had nothing to complain about. His new tooth had dramatically altered his behaviour, but of course that was to be expected.

He had screamed and screamed and then screamed some more. At one point he had wanted to be rocked and held close, and then the only thing that would soothe him was walking up and down. Finally, he had started settling. And that was the moment the asshat next door had chosen to bang on the wall and yell at her to make it stop. As though that had ever worked.

After that nothing she had done had calmed him, to the point that she had fell truly useless. Still, she had tried her hardest to be patient and understanding. She had steadfastly refused to give up.  
An eternity after he had first woken, he had settled in her arms. Sheer exhaustion had forced him to give in to how tired he was. She could swear that she had barely shut her eyes before her alarm was   
blaring again. She had been so exhausted that she had skipped her morning run.

Still, this morning she had been determined. A part of her knew that she just had to get through the next nine months, and then she would be done with school. All she had to do was pass her exams and then it was all done. She would prove to everyone who talked about her behind her back that just because she had a baby, didn’t mean she couldn’t do it.

Nine more months and then her and Henry could get on with the rest of their lives. Still, it wasn’t like she was doing the whole young mum thing on her own. She had David and Mary Margaret. Her foster parents were pretty great for supporting her, it had to be said. Emma had a support system and people who cared about her and Henry. For the first time in her life, there were people who cared.

School was bad enough when it came to judgement. People liked to talk about her behind her back. She knew what they said and what they called her. All she wanted was for nobody to start on her today. She could deal with the looks. Over the past two years those had become familiar to her. She barely noticed them anymore.

People talking about her behind her back stung, more than she cared to admit. It wasn’t so bad though, not in the grand scheme of things. She had Henry. She could ignore everything they said, but she wasn’t sure that would be the case if they started to her face. She wasn’t sure she would be able to control herself.

If it was about her, and just her, they could say whatever they liked. But if they dared to say something bad about her son, the only good thing she had ever put into the world, she wouldn’t be held responsible for her actions. And that was what they all liked to talk about. Emma Swan, the slut who had a kid at fifteen.

It was a joke, plain and simple. They all liked to talk about her, but they weren’t better than her. None of them knew what had happened. None of them cared, they just liked to have someone to talk about.

Regret didn’t describe it, because Henry was her entire world. He gave her a purpose and a drive that she hadn’t possessed before. She loved him more than she had ever loved someone before. She knew that she was young, very young at that, but she knew how to take care of him. Ultimately, it all came down to the fact that she could look after him. She did a better job than her parents had ever done for   
her.

Looking around the bustling corridor, she tried her utmost hardest to spot her best friends. Surely, she thought, Belle and Ruby had to be around. They had to be there somewhere, and she really wanted to find them before class. Although it had only been a fortnight since they had last seen each other, it felt like a lot longer. Henry had taken his first steps in the time that had passed.

Finally, after what felt like an age of looking but had in reality been only a few moments, she spotted them at their lockers as the far end of the corridor. Eagerly, she set off through the crowd, weaving her way through as she tried to reach them.

Little did she realise, as she weaved, that there was a Regina Mills shaped barrier in between her and her destination. At least, she didn’t realise until she was already on a collision course with no time to change direction. She tried her hardest to yell out a warning but it was far too late. With a resounding thud she crashed into her and sent them both sprawling. Both of them landed on the polished floor of   
the full corridor.

With an audible clatter, her glasses left her face and landed on the floor. Emma found herself sending up a prayer to the gods, even though she knew they were shatter proof. Otherwise she would have been completely and totally screwed. Her wages didn’t cover Henry’s day-care and other necessities with enough left over for new glasses.

She picked them and herself up off the floor and replaced them on the bridge of her nose only to find everyone staring at them. Her cheeks heated and she noticed that Regina, the most popular girl in school, was still sprawled on the floor. Clearing her throat in embarrassment, Emma ducked her head. Trying to avoid the eyes she could feel on her, she offered Regina a hand.

She looked at the girl before her on the floor, still trying her hardest to avoid the eyes of the other students around her. Regina scrunched up her nose in disgust and glared at Emma before taking the offered hand and allowing herself to be pulled up. 

For a second Emma could almost swear that, just for a moment, Regina’s attention had wavered away from her. Or rather, the other girl had stopped glaring up at her for a moment, when her eyes had flickered to Emma’s biceps. Which, of course, Emma found rather flattering.

When Regina was firmly planted back on her own two feet Emma stooped to pick up the book she had dropped. She handed it to her with a quick and muttered “sorry”, her cheeks still glowing a fierce red. Without waiting for a response Emma took off up the corridor, in the direction of her best friends. Even as she steadfastly refused to acknowledge them, she could feel eyes staring at her from all   
directions.

With five minutes to spare before the bell would ring she reached Ruby and Belle. After a quick catch up they parted so that they could make their way to their respective classes. Emma had AP literature, a fact which she was none too comfortable with. This, of course, was due to the fact that her foster mother was the senior classes’ teacher.

She strolled towards the classroom, trying to find the balance between not being too early but still being on time. After all, Mary Margaret had been awfully good to her over the past two and a half years. She was the first family Emma had ever had, her foster mother hadn’t pushed her away or gotten rid of her when she had found out Emma was pregnant at fifteen.

As she reached the end of the corridor, just before she turned the corner, she found herself being called softly from behind. Turning around, she figured that there were only so many people it could be. She found her very surprised, because she came face to face with Regina Mills. 

Smirking in a way that made Emma’s stomach clench and her palms sweat, Regina closed what was left of the distance between them. She came to a stop just before Emma, still smirking for all she was worth. That smirk was something that made Emma incredibly unnerved. She wanted to both run for cover and stay exactly in place, with the beautiful girl before her.

After a moment Emma noticed that Regina held something in her hand. As her eyes focused on it, Emma saw that it was her phone. She comes to the conclusion that she must have dropped it when she had sent them both flying. Her heart thuds in her chest and she can feel it all the way up to her throat. 

From the smirk on Regina’s face, she knows that she must have done or seen something. Which seems strange to Emma, because Regina doesn’t seem the type to enjoy humiliating or tormenting her peers. She wondered what it could possibly be. It had to be something.

In the few seconds of silence that pass as they stand before one another, a million different scenarios played through Emma’s head. Each one seems worse than the last and she would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that some were slightly more than ridiculous.

It isn’t as though there is anything incriminating on her phone. Just texts to her friends and pictures of her baby boy. Emma was a firm believer in photographing every moment she shared with her son.  
The words that come out of Regina’s mouth as she hands back the phone turn out to be the last thing Emma was expecting. In fact, she finds that it so surprising that the statement makes her freeze. 

Awkwardly, she brings her hand up to push her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

“Call me sometime.”

It is a statement, not a request. It comes out in so casual a tone, so offhand in its’ delivery, that it makes Emma stand and gawp for what she guesses must be a full minute. She would be lying to herself if she didn’t acknowledge that her hand was still poised on the join of her glasses.

In the end, Regina doesn’t leave it down to Emma to call her. The very same evening, just after Emma had put Henry to bed, she felt her phone go off in her pocket. Absently, as she watched her son sleep, she wonders who it could possibly be.

When she finally pulls herself away and has a look, it makes her smile like an idiot. She can’t help but be glad that she is alone in her bedroom at the time. She sits down and opens the text and if anything, it makes her smile more.

“Your son is almost as adorable as you 

**Author's Note:**

> So this is an old piece of work that I sort of came across and decided to edit and play with. I hope whoever reads this enjoys.


End file.
